Sword Fighting Lessons
by thequeenssavior
Summary: Inspired by filthycurtains' ask: "Imagine Neal and Emma play sword fighting and Regina's watching them and looking at them like they are both stupid, but secretly she totally wants to join in and Henry comes by and they all start playing, and she continues to watch idly. Neal notices her watching and smiles just before asking her to join, but she rolls her eyes. And then he smirks


**A/N: Unbeta'd, all mistakes are mine. I hope you enjoy!**

When Emma comes home one day and says she wants to impress her father, that she wants sword fighting lessons, Regina keeps quiet. She doesn't mention that she once had gotten into a tournament passing as a knight. Well, _almost_ gotten into a tournament. Her mother found her out when she was still in the classifications round. The name she had chosen (sir. Frye, T.) had been on the list that was released a week after her mother had discovered her. She hadn't been able to walk down to the village to see the list herself, but it had been placed under her pillow. Regina thought it might have been put there by the female guard that had told her about the tournament, but she never got the chance to ask. She had never seen the girl again.

Neal, who had learned how to sword fight while in Neverland, promises to take the family to the park to teach them. He means to ask Regina if she needs to be taught, sovereigns were expected to lead their army into battle, he knows that. He had lived through a war while he was still in the Enchanted Forest, after all. Regina senses it and asks him to set the table, and that they'll talk about letting Henry near swords when the boy isn't within hearing distance.

The weekend is only three days after that, so they find themselves in a clearing, at the edge of the forest (The Charmings take baby Lance to the park every Saturday morning). Regina sits on a log with Henry, with a book on her lap ("_I will not put myself in danger by staying around you while you aimlessly attempt to guide a sword, Emma._"). The book sits on her lap, opened at a random page she isn't reading, while she watches her two idiots move around. They're using sticks for now, just while Neal shows Emma the correct postures and some of the basic moves.

This used to be her escape, sword fighting. Regina would finish her morning classes with her tutors and run to the training field. When she was twelve she stole a wooden sword, used for training the younger guards, and Regina would practice with it every night. Her father caught her watching the trains when she was nearing fourteen, and gave her a real (but smaller than normal) sword for her birthday. That was the sword she trained with until she was sixteen, when stole a real sword from their armory. This sword was taken away less than a year later, she was seventeen by then, when the tournament incident happened. The sword her father had given her was still locked away in her vault.

"You can do better than this, Emma" Neal laughs, and Emma advances on him. For a second it looks like she's made the right move, but Regina easily reads Neal. When he turns and moves behind his opponent, 'sword' raised and touching the back of her neck, Regina just smiles softly.

"Wow. That was _awesome_! Did you see that mom!?" Henry is practically jumping up and down.

"Indeed."

"I almost did it!" Emma lets out a long sigh, and steps away from Neal, who is smiling from ear to ear.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever makes you sleep at night, Swan." He says it with a small laugh, and Emma can't help but smile a bit. Regina is too slow to hide her own smile when Neal looks at her. "You want to try next?"

"Not today, _Cassidy_." Regina rolls her eyes and pretends to go back to her book.

"Well then, you leave me no option." Regina looks up just in time to jump off the log and run. Henry grabs a stick, the one Neal had selected for Regina, and runs between his mother and his other parents, trying (and only failing slightly) to imitate the defence posture Neal had showed Emma earlier.

"Are you really going to hide behind the kid, Regina!?" Emma knows that would get a rise out of the other woman.

"I was_ unarmed_, Ms. Swan." Regina says it in a huff, and Emma knows they won.

"Well then, grab your sword and we'll see how well you can fight."

Regina's eyes narrow, and Henry, who has long since dropped the defensive stance, looks between his mothers with an expectant look. Regina extends her hand, and without a word Henry gives her his stick and takes a step back, preparing himself to what he's sure will be a fight easily won by Neal.

Emma loses her sword in less than 20 seconds. Neal is a bit more difficult than that, though not much. He goes to attack Regina, and she moves away at the last possible second. The 'sword' just barely brushes her left arm. It doesn't take more than a minute until Neal is on his back, and Regina puts her right foot on his chest, 'sword' pointed at his neck. "So, Cassidy, _am I up to your standards?_"

**A/N:**

**I'm a huge nerd so here's stuff you don't need to know (and probably don't even want to):**

**The alias Regina assumed on that tournament was 'sir T. Frye'. The 'T.', in my mind, comes from Tartarus.**

**Tartarus was one of the Protogenoi (The Greek primordial deities), born from Chaos (the embodiment of nothingness), along with 11 other deities (One of whom appeared on OUATIW, Nyx. -Look! Trivia inside a Trivia!-). Tartarus was also the darkest part of Hades,(not the God, the Underworld in Greek Mythology), that area is often taken as a prison and it is where most Evil creatures end up after their deaths.**

**The surname Frye is a variant of Fry, that comes from the Anglo-Saxon word 'frig', meaning 'free'.**

**I thought it was a nice contradiction, the first name meaning a place that is often understood to be a prison and a word that means 'free'. Also Tartarus being born from Chaos, I think chaotic is a word that could describe both Cora and Regina. And, you know, Regina being 'imprisioned' by her mother...**


End file.
